With free agency and the owner’s meetings in the rearview mirror and players reporting back to their teams for offseason workouts, the NFL Draft looms on the horizon at the end of April. Indianapolis holds nine picks in April’s draft and a roster that has far fewer holes than it had at this time a year ago. IndyStar is taking a look at the Colts on a position-by-position basis, gauging the level of need at each spot as Indianapolis prepares to make its picks.

INDIANAPOLIS – Finding cornerbacks who can make an immediate impact in the Tampa-2-inspired system Matt Eberflus has installed in Indianapolis is no simple task.

For starters, the Colts play a lot of zone coverage, and that means that prospects who primarily played in man-to-man coverage in college have to be able to prove they can handle the responsibility of being aware of multiple receivers at once, communicating and picking up receivers in routes in zone. That’s not always easy for a cornerback who was asked to focus on only the man in front of him in college.

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Indianapolis is also looking for size. Kenny Moore is the exception, not the rule; Colts general manager Chris Ballard has admitted that one of the team’s scouts, Kevin Rogers, had to convince him to put in a waiver claim on the 5-9 playmaker two years ago. Normally, his rule is to ignore any cornerback shorter than 5-10.

The Colts are also looking for cornerbacks who can tackle, and that’s a critical component of the Indianapolis defense. There are cornerbacks who are excellent in lockdown coverage but lack the desire or the ability to tackle; fitting a player like that into the Colts’ defense is difficult. The Indianapolis scheme is based on taking away the big play, forcing quarterbacks to throw the ball underneath and then clamping down on receivers before they can pick up big yardage after a catch.

Indianapolis wants to create turnovers, to take the ball away. Moore, who led the Colts with three interceptions, showed a knack last season for coming up with a big turnover when Indianapolis needed it most. Pierre Desir, who locked down DeAndre Hopkins twice, forced two fumbles, and Quincy Wilson improved by leaps and bounds in the second half of the season.

The Colts still need more turnover production out of their cornerbacks.

A cornerback in this scheme does not have to be the kind of one-on-one shutdown player that most people envision at the position, but a player who consistently takes the ball away — think Ronde Barber in Tampa Bay or Charles Tillman in Chicago — can be an enormous asset.

BALLARD’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS: Right up there with defensive end at the top of the team’s positional needs. Even if the trio of Desir, Moore and Wilson stays healthy throughout the season and takes the next step in its collective development, the Colts don’t have another cornerback on the roster who played more than nine snaps after the bye week.

Ballard himself has made it clear that he needs to find more help at the position.

“Depth in the secondary, I think we need to definitely continue to address that,” Ballard said.

There is potential for development. Jalen Collins, obviously, was a second-round pick of the Falcons, and Nate Hairston could improve and fix the problems that knocked him out of the defensive rotation last season.

But Indianapolis cannot count on those things happening, and that’s why the Colts need to pick at least one cornerback, and maybe two, in next week’s draft. An NFL team cannot have too many starting-caliber cornerbacks; it’s just not possible, and right now, Indianapolis needs much more competition at the position.

WHAT’S AVAILABLE: A lot, and it looks like there’s a good fit between value at the position and where the Colts are picking. It's a deep class that might make it possible to find good, starting-caliber players on the second day and the start of the third.

Washington’s Byron Murphy, Georgia’s Deandre Baker and Temple’s Rock Ya-Sin all might make sense at the end of the first round or the top of the second. Penn State’s Amani Oruwariye, Michigan’s David Long, Texas’ Kris Boyd and Houston’s Isaiah Johnson all might be available a little later; USC’s Iman Marshall, Clemson’s Mark Fields, Miami’s Michael Jackson and Alabama’s Saivion Smith are all potential options further down the board.